Six shot, four dead after shooting rampage

RACELAND - Six people have been shot between Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, four people are dead.

Lafourche Parish Sherriff's Office said the suspect, 38-year-old Ben Freeman, killed himself following the shooting spree.

Terrebonne deputies found the body of Freeman's wife, Denise Freeman, in the bathroom of the couple's house in Houma. She was pronounced dead around at 11:10 p.m. Thursday night.

Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said an autopsy has ruled Denise Freeman's cause of death as strangulation due to suffocation and drowning.

Investigators believe Freeman also travelled to Lafourche Parish and shot Lafourche Parish Councilman Louis Phillip Gouaux and daughter Andrea. They were injured in the Lockport shooting, and are in critical condition according to reports.

Gouaux's wife, Susan was killed.

The third shooting was in Raceland, where Milton Bourgeois, CEO of Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital, was shot and killed.

His wife was injured and is in stable condition.

Freeman is believed to be a former employee of Ochsner St. Anne Hospital, Thibodaux General Hospital, and Terrebonne General Hospital.

Freeman was found dead in his vehicle of a self-inflicted gunshot wound off U.S. Highway 90.

Authorities say Freeman was in a custody battle with his ex-wife. He killed himself after attacking his current wife, former in-laws, and his former boss.